Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has finally decided to launch a daily radio program after three decades in ministry, citing as motivation "three deep convictions" he feels God has "burned" into his heart.

As the megachurch pastor and The Purpose Driven Life author shares in an explanatory video, the reasons for starting the daily radio program primarily are about equipping Christians all over the world to spread the Gospel and drawing attention to issues of religious freedom and moral malaise in the U.S.

"I am deeply concerned about the direction of our nation and the decay of our culture. If we don't have a spiritual awakening in our nation, I fear for the future of our country," Warrens says in the video on the "Daily Hope" Web page. more >>

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Pastor Rick Warren highlighted parts of his sermon on how the resurrection of Jesus Christ "changed everything" with scenes from the popular docudrama series "The Bible" during a lunchtime worship service at Saddleback Church on Good Friday. The message will be given again several more times before the weekend ends.

"How did 12 peasant fishermen, tax collectors, farmers – how in the world did they multiply – 12 followers of Jesus to one out of every three people on the planet [identifying as Christian]? The answer is the Resurrection," said Warren to about 2,000 people in attendance and an online viewing audience. "The resurrection of Jesus changed everything. It split our calendar to the A.D. and the B.C.

"No other event has impacted the world so much as the resurrection of Jesus Christ," he said. more >>

Rick Warren, the 59-year-old pastor at the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in California, is preparing for "retirement" in a few years much like he has spent his ministry – by living simply and focusing on God.

Warren, the author of A Purpose Driven Life, the most reprinted non-fiction book on a global scale after the Bible, has often spoken about the importance of living humbly and within one's means.

"The Bible teaches that we are to love people and use money, but we often get that reversed and you start loving money and using people to get more money. Money is simply a tool to be used for good," the California pastor has said. more >>

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California commented on the much-anticipated "The Bible" TV series, which premiers on the History Channel on Sunday, saying it is by far the best Bible movie he has ever seen.

"I have seen probably every film made on the Bible in the last 50 years. This is by far the best one," Warren said, giving top marks to the 10-hour series, which will air each Sunday until Easter, March 30.

The best-selling author has been eagerly promoting the upcoming project, created by TV producers Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey. On Saturday, the California pastor will air a 90-minute simulcast featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the production of "The Bible." more >>

Best-selling author and pastor Rick Warren plans to give an exclusive preview and behind-the-scenes look at the production of "The Bible" TV series, created by Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, during a live webcast on Saturday. The event comes one day before the much-anticipated first episode premieres on the History Channel this Sunday.

The 90-minute simulcast hosted by Warren will feature an overview of the series with not-yet-seen portions of the series and the "why" behind the series with Burnett and Downey, according to Pastors.com, a website dedicated to providing guidance and resources for Christian leaders.

"One way to build a bridge between God's Word and the issues of our day is to tie a sermon series into some cultural event, something that has already caught the attention of many people," Warren stated. "For instance, when we enter the current economic crisis, I preached a series on God's principles for money management. It taught people that the Bible offers wise and practical advice on how to handle your finances. more >>

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., regularly tweets encouraging and Bible-based messages for his more than 892,000 Twitter followers and those individual messages are frequently retweeted thousands of times. But not everyone is a fan of Warren's "Christian tweets," including theologian, author and blogger Tony Jones.

"Look, Rick Warren stopped following me on Twitter long ago. So I stopped following him right back. Nevertheless, some people I follow occasionally retweet his pithy, axiomatic Christian tweets. He seems to be a Twitter proverb generator," Jones wrote Thursday on his Patheos.com Theology channel.

The Christian author pointed his readers to the Rick Warren Tips (@Cantexplainhere) account apparently created on Feb. 14 to dole out "advice in the style of Rick Warren's tweets." more >>